The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

Movies and books catch the interest of millions everyday. Both are trying to achieve the same goal, to tell a story. Sometimes if a book is popular enough, a person may decide to make a movie adaptation of it. However, because of time constraints when making a film, a director usually needs to leave out a significant portion of information. When this happens, the producers and director needs to make the decision of what to leave out and what to include. After analyzing the movie adaptations of, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, “Rappaccini's Daughter,” and Katherine Anne Porter’s, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” the viewer can find several bits of information the creators left in from the book. However, on some occasions, …show more content…
In, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” one of the main characters, Katrina Van Tassel, is alike in both the book and movie. Her character is a young girl that is pretty and wealthy. She uses her looks to persuade and influence other people such as Ichabod Crane. Another similarity in the book and movie is that the people of Sleepy Hollow both refer to the horseman as, The Headless Horseman. However, the townspeople in the book sometimes call the horseman, The Galloping Hessian. Even though it can be called a different name, the horseman’s role in the story is the same. The headless horseman is controlled by Katrina Van Tassel and is terrorizing the town of Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod Crane investigates the town of Sleepy Hollow for the headless horseman in both the book and movie. One difference between the two, is that at the beginning of the book, it mentions how the headless horseman was a hessian soldier whose head was taken off by a cannon ball. In the movie, it shows that the headless horseman’s head was taken off by the enemy during a battle. A possible reason behind showing this version of a backstory was to make the character seem more dramatic. A second difference between the two is that in the book, Ichabod Crane was a schoolteacher from Connecticut who was brought into Sleepy Hollow to become a schoolmaster. In the movie, Ichabod Crane was a …show more content…
In, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” one of the similar events in the plot is what Ichabod Crane’s goal is after being sent to Sleepy Hollow. In both the book and movie, Ichabod’s purpose in Sleepy Hollow is investigating the headless horseman. A second similarity is that Ichabod is trying to win the heart of Katrina Van Tassel. He is attracted to her in the book while teaching her how to sing, but in the movie, it’s from seeing her around the town. The third similarity in plot is that Ichabod sees the headless horseman for the first time in the forest. However, it’s only in the book where seeing the horseman in the forest is what prompts him to investigate. One difference in the plot is that at the end of the book, Brom Van Brunt marries Katrina once Ichabod has left. In the movie, Brom Van Brunt is killed by the headless horseman. Another major difference is that in the book, the horseman doesn’t actually kill anyone. In the movie however, the horseman killed many people. There was a lot of speculation in the town trying to figure out why the horseman would do this. The third difference in plot is that Katrina was Ichabod’s signing student in the book. Ichabod was trying to make extra money alongside of being a schoolmaster in Sleepy Hollow by teaching singing lessons. In the movie, Katrina plays the role of a beautiful girl that controls the horseman by drawing chalk symbols on the